Gabe Youtsey

Gabe has been involved since the beginning of the ride and has been a
great inspiration to the newbies on the ride having suffered through the
first year. You have to give him huge props for riding to LA that first
year with the amount of training he did. As he mentions, he has been
busy this year putting in more than enough training miles to have a
great ride this year. If you are looking to get on a bike for the first
time in a long time or are thinking I would love to ride in next years
tour but cant fathom being sufficiently prepared for the ride, it would
be great to talk to Gabe. I am sure he can convince you to ride.

Gabe Youtsey-Manager, Sacramento Advisory

My cycling career began sometime in 2006 when Fred Isaak invited me to
participate in a ride he was thinking of organizing down the California
coast. I grew up riding a mountain bike in the hills of southern Oregon,
but had never ridden a road bike. I now live near Davis, California
which many consider to be the bike capitol of the US and have a number
of "roadie" friends. I quickly got outfitted with all the gear,
spending way more money than was probably necessary and did a bit of
training with my friends in preparation for Chasing Daylight 2006. Talk
about a rude awakening, what was I thinking! The ride was very
physically and mentally challenging, and I was unprepared. The first
several days were very difficult, but I completed the ride in the end.
Looking back I can truly say it was one of the highlights of my life so
far. Fast forward to 2008, I decided to get serious about training for
this ride. I live in a relatively flat area, so I've been riding 40-50
mile training rides (usually in the dark) 4-5 days per week over the
last several months with longer weekend rides. This year Chasing
Daylight has new meaning for me. I'm passionate about this cause as a
close friend of my family may die of cancer this month, losing the fight
after a year of intense treatments that ultimately didn't work. It is
for her and finding a cure for this terrible disease that I ride.